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I know kroot aren't used often, and Shapers even less so.


But shapers have an astonishing 3 wounds. 3 wounds for a squad Sargent. That's crazy! Suddenly, this shaper if he makes it to combat with any other units with a squad Sargent, barring any that would ID him, he has a fairly good chance of winning just by being able to take a couple hits!



My 2cents is that shapers are wicked sweet, but it doesn't make any sense? Why 3 wounds? Do any other units in the game that have squad sargents have their wounds increased so much? Or at all? Genestealers and their brood lord come to mind.

I know nothing of the Greater Good, but just thinking of the normal reasons of not taking a character... Perhaps point cost?

Well I know why he's not taken. That's not really the question, he's costs the same as 3 kroot. But I'm wondering why he even has 3 wounds when other squad leaders only go up in leadership. He's more of a minor hq really.

He ate too many daemons.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oooooo... Bellyache.

NauticalKendall wrote:
Well I know why he's not taken. That's not really the question, he's costs the same as 3 kroot. But I'm wondering why he even has 3 wounds when other squad leaders only go up in leadership. He's more of a minor hq really.

Nope. He costs only a little more than 2 Kroot.

I'd definitely take him, OP. Even if it were just for the sake of making the entire squad LD 8 instead of 7.

The reason he has 3 W is because tau commander have 4 W! they tend to have an extra W than others as they suck at close combat.

Pretty sure Kroot shapers have had 3 wounds since they were first introduced in 3rd.

This was offset by the fact that they were expensive, didn't have any special close combat weapons, T3, and no real saves (6+ is pretty much no save at all).

I guess it's just a big mystery why they have 3 wounds then, other than it's just how it is.

I like my Kroot as cannon fodder and objective holders.....so no on the shaper, imo we it comes to mind troops lean and mean

Kroot Shapers have 3 wounds because yes, they are minor HQ choices.

The only reason the Shaper isn't an HQ choice is because Tau doctrine doesn't allow a non-Tau to command an army (or a Tau squad, for that matter). The Shaper has always been the HQ option for a Kroot army, but because Kroot are auxiliaries and don't have sergeants (each carnivore squad is a family unit or something, and shapers lead families), being of a more tribal bent than a military one, their HQ choice is always part of the squad.

That and because if he was an HQ choice, he'd either need a retinue (effectively putting a troops squad into the HQ slot), or he'd need to be an IC and therefore you'd end up with Tau sqauds led by Shapers, which is just plain wrong.

Shapers are great. When they get their squad to eat Necrons you get these.

My (limited) experience with Kroot is that they make GEQs sh*t their pants in melee. The Shaper adds +1 Ld and those extra wounds, which are more than worth the cost if you've already got Kroot on the table.